In this post, I will show you what you need to know about MCP Gateways.
The model context protocol (MCP) has become the de facto method to connect AI models to the tools and real-time data they need to do genuinely valuable work in organizations of all sizes.Â
However, when people discover that MCP servers are the key that unlocks AI-based productivity gains, they soon learn that MCP servers are challenging to get working at scale and present a range of security risks.Â
Businesses know they want the promised benefits of agentic AI. They understand MCP servers are key to this, but that they need a solution to solve the security, scalability, enablement, and observability shortcomings of MCP servers in their “raw” form.Â
An MCP gateway is the solution they seek. In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about MCP gateways, including what they are, how they work, and why they’re essential for businesses that want to harness the power of AI at scale.
Table of Contents
What Is an MCP Gateway?
In its simplest form an MCP gateway is a security tool that mitigates the security risks of using model context protocol (MCP) servers.Â
People and organizations using an MCP gateway funnel all MCP connections and traffic through it, enabling them to enforce a wide range of security measures, control access to resources and data, moderate data flows, generate high-fidelity logs, and more.
Why MCP Gateways Are Essential
Businesses and other organizations are pushing themselves to adopt AI at scale to improve productivity and overall business performance. MCP servers are the key that enables AI models (such as ChatGPT, Claude, and AI agents) to use your business’s apps, data, internal systems, and other resources.Â
Connecting AI to these resources breaks the AI models out of their walled garden. It allows them to do really valuable work in the real world, including completing multi-step, “chained” workflows across multiple business systems and databases.
“Raw” MCP Servers Are Unscalable & Risky
MCP servers empower AI models with access to tools, systems, and real-time data. However, in their raw form, MCP servers lack the scalability, security, and observability that businesses require in order to be confident enough to use them.Â
Using MCP servers without additional tools in place to manage and secure them is a recipe for almost inevitable disaster. In 2025 alone – the year of MCP’s birth – there have been an abundance of exposed misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and demonstrated attacks.Â
These early incidents and experiments have proven that using MCP without control and security tools in place puts an organization’s data and business systems at serious risk.Â
These risks could lead to significant financial expenditures (including security cleanups, fines, lost business activity, and ransom payments), reputational damage, and extensive disruption to business operations.Â
MCP Gateways Make MCP Safe and Scalable
In short, MCP gateways provide the missing pieces that make MCP servers suitable and acceptable for business use.
An MCP gateway is the solution organizations need to adopt MCP at scale, securely, and in a controlled, managed manner. It’s the key to enabling MCP adoption, and in turn, AI-based productivity and performance improvements.
MCP gateways vary, but the most comprehensive MCP gateways – such as MCP Manager – currently provide organizations with:
- The ability to deploy MCP servers easily at scale
- Centralized registry and management of all MCP servers
- Protections against MCP-based attack vectors
- Enforcement of security policies on all MCP traffic at runtime
- Data security, data protection, and data compliance across all MCP usage
- Full end-to-end observability of all MCP traffic, including audit logs, reports, and real-time alertsÂ
Are all MCP gateways the same?
No, MCP gateways vary in their functionality, features, and capabilities. Functionality to solve a specific problem may also differ in approach from one gateway to another. For example, each MCP gateway may handle user management in a slightly different way or take a different approach to mitigating specific types of attack and vulnerabilities.
This capability variance is partly because MCP is so new, and as a result, the tools to support and improve its use are also new. MCP tooling is still in its very early stages of development. There is no best-of-breed archetype or established baseline set of features for MCP gateways yet.Â
MCP Manager is an MCP gateway at the more comprehensive end of the spectrum. Its capabilities include MCP server deployment, management, observability, and security features.
Other MCP gateways focus solely on providing core security functionality, while others are designed for individual users (most commonly open-source projects).Â
How Does an MCP Gateway Work?
Firstly, I’ll provide a brief explanation of how model context protocol (MCP) connections work for anyone new to the topic.
What Is MCP and How Do MCP Connections Work?
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for AI-based communication. It creates a set of shared rules, akin to a language or exchange mechanism.
This open standard enables AI models (such as Claude, Perplexity.ai, and ChatGPT) to communicate, interact with, and use resources. These resources can include the apps your teams use, internal systems, and internal/external data sources.
MCP connections have three main components:
- MCP Host: Typically, your AI chatbot (such as ChatGPT or Claude) or IDE
- MCP Client: Sits inside the MCP Host and handles communication between the host and the MCP server. You can think of it as a translator or fixer between the host and server.
- MCP Server: Provides access to the resource (such as the app or database) and offers capabilities (called MCP tools) that the MCP client can use with that resource, for example, “write_email,” “send_email,” or “read_data.”Â
Where Does the MCP Gateway Sit in the Connection Flow?
An MCP gateway sits between the MCP client and the MCP server.Â
Each MCP message sent in either direction (from server to client and vice versa) passes through the MCP gateway before reaching the client or server.
The MCP gateway, as the name suggests, is the sole route in and out for MCP messages. The MCP gateway actually acts more like a gateway-plus-sentry.Â
First, the gateway stops and inspects the MCP message as it passes through. It looks at the message’s nature and content. It decides if it should apply any rules/policies, or alterations to the message before allowing it through, such as redacting sensitive data, and/or firing alerts off to your team.Â
In some cases, the message might be blocked entirely, for example, if it contains a malicious prompt that could “poison” or manipulate your AI into taking dangerous and damaging actions.Â
As you would expect from a responsible guard, the MCP gateway creates detailed, fully traceable records (logs) to aid further investigation and to provide real-time data for reports.
Why the MCP Gateway’s Central Position Is Crucial
The MCP gateway’s position as a single, central point through which all your organization’s MCP traffic flows enables it to:
- Create detailed, traceable, audit logs of all MCP traffic
- Provide data for reports on MCP/AI performance, security, usage, and other areas
- Enforce security policies on all MCP traffic
- Protect sensitive or regulated data against exfiltration or unauthorized access
- Control which users/teams and AIs can access which MCP servers and tools
- Reduce tool “overload” with toolsetsÂ
- Maximize AI model efficiency and reduce LLM token consumption
- Add enhanced data flow controls through integrated tools, such as consent management platforms
- Make it easier for the AI to select the right MCP toolÂ
There are additional capabilities and benefits that MCP gateways could provide; however, these are more theoretical and have not been shown to work in practice, for example:
- Dynamically orchestrating toolsets or tool selection based on the MCP client request using an LLM inside the gateway
- Refining and improving server responses and client requests for greater efficiency and effectiveness
- Predictive autoscaling to improve performance and load balancing
Choosing the Right MCP Gateway for You
As I mentioned earlier in this article, we’re at a stage in MCP-tooling development where there aren’t really common baselines for features and functionality – although these are beginning to emerge. Despite this, innovative organizations have already selected and begun using an MCP gateway.Â
Organizations that want to get the maximum benefits from agentic AI as soon as possible will also need to find an MCP gateway to facilitate, secure, and manage their MCP ecosystem.
You won’t find an abundance of reviews or case studies to guide you, so you will need to book demonstrations with MCP gateway vendors, and wherever possible, try the gateway out for yourself before making a final decision.Â
Here are some key capabilities and outcomes to check it against. Ask yourself whether this MCP gateway:
- Provides a centralized registry of all MCP servers used in my organization
- Provides admin controls to centrally block/allow MCP servers and tools, at the level of organization (i.e., global controls), team, role, and individual user
- Enables admin users to compose “gateways” with specific tool sets and provision these to specific teams and groups
- Makes server deployment easier for non-technical users
- Mitigates tool poisoning and rug-pull style attacks
- Enables me to create rules to protect sensitive data from exfiltration, unauthorized access, misuse, and damage
- Generates verbose, fully-traceable logs that I can use to audit events, including chained actions that occurred across multiple MCP servers (such as multi-step workflows)
- Is compatible with all AI hosts, CLIs, and headless agents
- Supports all MCP server deployment types (remote, managed, and workstation)
- Provides dashboards and reports to monitor usage, adoption, security events, and more
- Can integrate with identity providers (IdPs) to support single sign-on (SSO) and SCIM
- Has a robust user management architecture (including users, roles, and teams)
- Supports automated token rotation to improve the security of token-based access (i.e., OAuth 2.1)
Of course, you will probably have specific requirements or preferences you should add to this list to make your selection criteria as robust as possible.Â
MCP Gateways: The Lock and the Key For Agentic AI
LLM producers, big tech, and SaaS vendors of all kinds have converged around MCP, given it their blessing, and have spent considerable sums to ensure they are MCP-compatible. Fortune 500 companies are now either planning their MCP adoption or have already started. The direction of travel is clear, and the momentum is unstoppable.Â
However, MCP servers require tooling to work for businesses and other organizations. MCP gateways lock down MCP traffic and enable scaled deployment. They’re the key that unlocks the scaled MCP server and agentic AI usage.
MCP servers and MCP gateways are still less than a year old. However, organizations are already adopting them at pace, recognizing the accelerant this provides in the race to realize a wide range of benefits from scaled AI use, gain a significant competitive advantage, and, at worst, not fall way behind competitors.
After reading this article, you should have a clear understanding of what MCP gateways do, how they fit in the MCP communication flow, and how they enable you to adopt and use MCP servers successfully, at scale, securely.
Now, if an MCP gateway isn’t already on your 2026 must-have list, add it and start exploring what the market has to offer.Â
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About the Author:
Meet Angela Daniel, an esteemed cybersecurity expert and the Associate Editor at SecureBlitz. With a profound understanding of the digital security landscape, Angela is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge with readers. Her insightful articles delve into the intricacies of cybersecurity, offering a beacon of understanding in the ever-evolving realm of online safety.
Angela's expertise is grounded in a passion for staying at the forefront of emerging threats and protective measures. Her commitment to empowering individuals and organizations with the tools and insights to safeguard their digital presence is unwavering.
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